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Picking, Packing & Shipping Automation Fishbowl Inventory

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Do you pick, pack, and ship? When your warehouse team uses technology and software to automate this process, you’ll be able to ship orders to your customers as efficiently and quickly as possible. If you’re planning to introduce shipment automation software into your warehouse, this article is for you.

What is shipping integration software?

Shipping integration software is used to automate managing and tracking the delivery of products. It’s used by:

  • Freight delivery companies
  • Couriers
  • Businesses involved with outbound shipping
  • Import and export companies.

The automated shipping system Starshipit is an example of shipping integration software that integrates with different types of software, including freight, distribution, fleet management, tracking, and warehouse management.

Does my business need a shipping automation solution?

Does your warehouse team need to enter customer details twice? Are they wasting time inputting consignment weights and dimensions twice? An automated shipping system can sound intimidating if your business uses picking, packing, and shipping as a stand-alone system.

Key steps to consider when you automate shipping processes include:

  • Integrating eCommerce with your shipping processes by using platforms that integrate your shopping cart with inventory management systems.
  • Improving your inventory management system by upgrading the software that tracks products quickly and efficiently.
  • Using shipment tracking updates that integrate with your automation software. This ensures your customers get accurate updates about deliveries and any important status changes.

A shipping automation solution like Fishbowl enables your business to use one platform for multiple freight carriers. This speeds up your fulfillment capability and ensures inventory records are accurate before being shipped out.

Fishbowl’s shipping automation solution also reduces the need for double entry of:

  • Customer information
  • Address details
  • Dimensions and weights
  • Carton or pallet quantities.

Benefits of automating shipping processes

It doesn’t matter what size your business is; when you embrace the automation of shipping processes, the benefits are intangible and tangible and include the following.

Automated shipping processes increase your capacity to grow. Manual systems are inefficient when dealing with larger shipping volumes. This can hinder your ability to handle new business successfully.

Shipping automation processes can save time and help your warehouse managers prioritise critical deliveries or deliveries with a high value.

Automated shipping tracks inventory efficiently and accurately. It helps your inventory get out the door as soon as possible, with more accuracy and fewer errors than a manual shipping system.

Shipping automation processes can give you insights into data, including seasonal fluctuations, demand, and customer trends. This can help you make decisions about your supply chain for the future.

Starshipit & Fishbowl shipping integration

When choosing automated shipping systems, they must integrate with the couriers and online systems you’re already using. Starshipit & Fishbowl shipping integration helps businesses save time and work smarter by using fulfillment automation software that seamlessly integrates with the couriers and online platforms you’re already using.

By integrating with leading international and domestic couriers, Starshipit creates rules for weight, SKUs, locations, and shipping methods. This effortlessly automates delivery processes while generating manifests and booking courier pickups.

How does Starshipit integrate into Fishbowl?

When your business integrates Starshipit into Fishbowl, you’ll reduce dispatch time and speed up your order fulfillment process. With seamless integration for multiple couriers, you’ll reduce manual entry and errors. Orders are imported and assigned automatically, and shipping labels are generated before your customers are notified with tracking updates.

Benefits of Starshipit & Fishbowl warehouse management

If your business uses a manual fulfillment process or an automated shipping process that’s not integrated, it can lead to chaos, backlogs, and frustrating customer experiences. The Starshipit and Fishbowl warehouse management system offers seamless integration and an efficient fulfillment process. Benefits include:

  • Reduced handling time
  • Improved customer experience
  • Reduced room for human error
  • Simple integration with domestic and international couriers and eCommerce platforms.

Starshipit & Fishbowl shipping process steps

If your business ships more than 15 orders a day, the Starship and Fishbowl shipping process will pay for itself in next to no time. The start to finish process follows simple steps that eliminate the need for double entry while saving your warehouse team time and effort.

Fishbowl & eCommerce integration

  • Fishbowl eCommerce integration with Starshipit is seamless because the two systems communicate in the following way:
  • The Starshipit plugin calculates and adds a freight charge to the sales order when an order is entered in Fishbowl. While this is optional, it’s helpful if you want to charge customers for freight based on shipped items.
  • After your order is packed in Fishbowl, it’s automatically uploaded to Starshipit for processing to the preferred carrier.
  • Information including customer and address details, pallet or carton quantities, and dimensions are auto-filled. This reduces the need for double entry by your warehouse team.
  • After carrier labels are processed for them to be collected, Fishbowl will download the details of the completed shipment from Starshipit. This applies to tracking information and shipped carrier details to the order before fulfilling the shipment in Fishbowl.
  • Once the order’s complete, the tax invoice is pushed to your accounting system.

Picking & packing warehouse stock

When your business uses the Fishbowl and Starship automation process, you’ll be able to get orders in and ship orders out effortlessly. The online B2B ordering portal allows your customers to place orders 24/7 at a time that suits them. There’s no need for double handling with all orders flowing directly into Fishbowl.

Shipping orders out is a breeze with Fishbowl and Starshipit integration. By comparing shipping rates and delivery times from multiple carriers on one screen, you can decide the best carrier to ship use.

Starshipit tracking, carrier & service information

Having the correct address, tracking information, and delivery status is key to ensuring your customers are satisfied. All Fishbowl orders get automatically imported into the cloud, where Starshipit stores the courier status and tracking details.

Need addresses checked? Starshipit checks and corrects invalid addresses with a one-click action. Labels can be generated automatically either individually or in batches to PDFs or thermal printers. Or you can use a barcode scanner to automatically print packing slips and labels.

Are you sending packages internationally? Starshipit automatically creates documentation to lodge with customs. And to ensure the correct courier service is being used, you can establish and configure rules for weight, size, location, and delivery expectations. Read more about Starshipit tracking, carrier, and service information.

Our successful use cases & clients

Reading case studies is one of the best ways to determine if a service is as good as people say it is. Professional Beauty Solutions have been successfully using Fishbowl and Starshipit since late September 2020 for their inventory management.

“We have moved thousands of orders since starting the Starshipit integration and have found significant accuracy increases and labour cost savings as a result. Investments with such a short ROI are not easy to find, and this is one we could have happily executed sooner.”
James Stonham, PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY SOLUTIONS

The Everten Group was one of Australia’s first online kitchen retailers, with several other businesses under its banner. They rely on Fishbowl and Starshipit for their inventory management to ensure all online orders are fulfilled internationally and nationally.

“Fishbowl has definite brought everything together, and it’s also helpful that we’ve got Fishbowl within our three businesses because we’re able to use it together and the visibility of the inventory and where everything is at with the sales orders, and the access to the data and reports that we can create from it just make it all so much easier to handle.”
ALEX PALLOT, IT MANAGER, EVERTEN GROUP

Want to learn more about Fishbowl inventory management?

Does your business use freight carriers to deliver goods to customers? Fishbowl Inventory Management is a world leader in inventory management and purchase order management. Our shipping solutions remove the need for double entry of details, including customer information, consignment weights, and dimensions. We can help smooth the picking, packing, and automation processes for you and your supply chain, increase efficiency and fatten your bottom line. Get a free demo from us or speak to one of our friendly and knowledgeable team. Call us on 1300 785 755.